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How to cook like a top chef PDF

225 Pages·2011·33.533 MB·English
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Text copyright © 2010 by Bravo Media, LLC All full-page food photographs copyright © 2010 by Antonis Achilleos All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available. eISBN: 978-0-8118-7486-1 Design by Catherine Grishaver Art Direction by Anne Donnard Cover Design by Vanessa Dina Full-page food styling by Jamie Kimm Full-page prop styling by Marina Malchin The recipes included in this book have been re-created from live cooking events on the Top Chef television series with some modifications for the home cook. The information in this book has been researched and tested, and all efforts have been made to ensure accuracy. Neither the publisher nor the creators can assume responsibility for any accident, injuries, losses, or other damages resulting from the use of this book. Photographs, except all full-page food photographs, are courtesy of Bravo Media, LLC. Top Chef and Bravo are trademarks of Bravo Media, a division of NBC Universal. Activa TG-RM is a registered trademark of Ajinomoto Kabushiki Kaisha DBA Ajinomoto Co., Inc.; Cheetos Flamin’ Hot and Fritos are registered trademarks of Frito-Lay North America, Inc.; CornNuts is a registered trademark of Kraft Foods Global, Inc.; Dr Pepper is a registered trademark of Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc.; Goldschläger is a registered trademark of Diageo plc.; Maldon Sea Salt is a registered trademark of Maldon Crystal Salt Company Ltd.; Rodenbach Grand Cru is a registered trademark of Palm Breweries Joint Stock Company; Silpat is a registered trademark of Demarle Inc., USA; Wondra is a registered trademark of General Mills, Inc. Chronicle Books LLC 680 Second Street San Francisco, California 94107 2 www.chroniclebooks.com how to cook like a Foreword by rick bayless TexT by emily miller phoTographs by antonis achilleos 6 Top Chef Master Foreword by Rick Bayless 8 Introduction kitchen fundamentals: table of contents sides, soups, salads, starches 10 Recipe List 12 Slicing & Dicing 16 Q+A with Gail Simmons 19 What’s Hot & What’s Not 22 Q+A with Lee Anne 30 Fabio’s Pasta Demo 34 Q+A with Nikki 35 Top Team 40 Q+A with Michael Chiarello 44 Eggs Six Ways 45 Top Chef Personals principles of protein: beef, lamb, pork, poultry 46 Recipe List 48 How to Cook Meat 51 Top Meat 59 Q+A with Stefan 60 Q+A with Kevin 62 Q+A with Bryan and Michael V. 67 Spike’s Burger Demo 71 Q+A with Jennifer C. 76 Ariane’s Lamb Demo 78 Stephen’s Wine-Pairing Demo 4 seafood essentials: advanced culinary applications: scallops to ceviche Top Chef extreme 80 Recipe List 148 Recipe List 82 Q+A with Eric Ripert 150 Top Plating 84 Top Seafood 153 Q+A with Wylie Dufresne 88 Q+A with Hubert Keller 156 Q+A with John Besh 96 When the Stoves Are Off 160 Richard B.’s Dry–Ice Cream Demo 97 Jamie’s Scallop Demo 161 Tools of the Top Chef Kitchen 100 Hung’s Sashimi Demo 164 Q+A with Eli and Richard B. 104 Fillet-O-Fish 168 Anatomy of a Winning Dish 105 Hosea’s Fish-Roasting Demo 173 Q+A with Marcel 112 Chef Bios: Season 6 176 Restaurant Wars 178 Top Chef Masters Bios foreign exchange: cooking with global flavors last course: the art of dessert 116 Recipe List 118 Going Global 182 Recipe List 122 Q+A with Rick Bayless 190 Carla’s Pastry Demo 131 Lisa’s Pad Thai Demo 191 Dessert Disasters 134 Q+A with Stephanie 196 Q+A with Anita Lo and Suzanne Tracht 142 Dale T.’s Tempura Demo 200 Top Tattoo 209 Outtakes 210 Menus 212 Index 220 Acknowledgments 222 Sources 223 Table of Equivalents 5 top chef master foreword I guess I am lucky. My childhood memories are a glorious grab bag of dicing, slicing, roasting, deep-frying, smoking, simmering—everything that went on in the prep kitchen of my parents’ Oklahoma City barbecue restaurant in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Some folks might think a professional kitchen is no place for a kid Now, unless your family has its own Julia, chances are you’re to grow up. I mean, think about it: 500-degree ovens, 375-degree living with a cookbooks-and-TV culinary education, too. This oil, slippery floors, an arsenal of knives dangling through wooden needn’t be a discouragement, as long as you don’t mind spending slots on the side of a prep table, just about level with a five-year- enough time in the kitchen for those techniques to migrate from old’s head. But for me, that kitchen was a wonderland, and all the the brain to the fingers: to become second nature. I’m sure that’s cooks knew that’s how I felt. So they took that little boy into their what Jacques Pépin, the French technique master widely known fold. They taught me what every good cook—and Top Chef—has from his television shows and books, was getting at when, as a to master: a respect for the tools of the trade. A respect that budding young chef, I asked him where I should go for culinary allows one to utilize those tools to their greatest potential, with education. Without a word, he pointed at the stove in the small intimate understanding and without fear. kitchen where I’d prepared his lunch. That’s how I learned to roast some meats at high temperatures, Nothing beats practice, especially when television and the Inter- smoke others at low ones, fearlessly reach a short pair of tongs net can provide masterful demonstrations at the click of a button. into boiling oil to retrieve a golden this or that, dice a gallon of Practice, plus a mind that’s open and adventurous. After growing celery in a matter of moments, scrub a burnt pot until no trace up in a meat-centric barbecue restaurant, I immersed myself in of waywardness remains . . . all essential techniques learned so Julia’s French kitchen, and then later fell head over heels in love long ago they now seem more akin to intuition than a curriculum with a plate of chicken mole—which led to my learning a brand- I once had to master by sheer repetition. new set of techniques. Smack-dab in the middle of those years, Julia Child started mak- That’s when the lightbulb went off: techniques ing her famous “French Chef” cooking shows for public tele- are all we cooks have for transforming beautiful vision—and my world changed. She revealed to me techniques ingredients into seductive, thrilling, memorable and flavors and preparations that transcended the repertory of my family’s restaurant. She introduced me to all kinds of equipment flavors and textures. If recipes are the sheet and remarkable things to do with a chicken or a piece of pie crust. music of our kitchens, then mastered techniques No longer could I satisfy my nearly unquenchable kitchen thirst are our way of making them sing. solely at the Hickory House on Oklahoma City’s southwest side. But this time I didn’t have a bunch of professional cooks to show Funny thing is, you can discover amazing techniques in the most me the intricacies and finesse of the new techniques I wanted to unlikely places. I learned to make Mexico’s most complex sauce, master—only a single cookbook and a once-a-week TV show. Oaxacan black mole, from an old woman cooking in clay pots over 6 top chef master foreword by rick bayless Winner of Masters, Season 1 an open fire, at a little ranch in the middle of nowhere. Still, it took me ten years to master what she showed me in a single afternoon—to be able to create a flavor that captured hearts like hers did. I don’t know why it took me so long to figure out that the point of great technique isn’t just refinement or intri- cacy or dazzle. It’s incredible flavor. Well, incredible flavor and haunting texture; in my mind, they’re intertwined. Both taste and texture can take you to new and unexpected levels of pleasure and appreciation. Being a great chef or a Top Chef isn’t necessarily about this-or-that culinary school—although I am a staunch believer in young chefs going to school to learn the language and essential techniques of the professional kitchen. A great chef is born from dedication to searching out awe-inspiring tastes and textures, then putting in the hours to master the techniques that created them. I leave you aspiring Top Chefs with two recommendations: first, become friends with fire. From scarcely perceivable to aggressive, the right heat—even when “right” means “intense”—is one of the most important techniques you’ll ever master. And second, dedicate yourself to your knives. Keeping them razor-sharp is essential to ease, accomplishment, and, of course, safety (since dull knives account for far more kitchen accidents than sharp ones). Wait, there’s a third: trust your taste buds. That’s what’ll get you furthest as you strive for Top Chef-dom. 7 introduction Want to learn how to make Stefan’s Roasted Duck or Hubert Keller’s Mac and Cheese (with or without a dorm shower)? Are you curious about how Jennifer C. prepares her mussels, or what goes into Rick Bayless’s guacamoles? How to Cook like a Top Chef not only gives you the recipes, it also teaches you the fundamental techniques that make these dishes work. How to Cook like a Top Chef takes a deeper look at the skills and Place Relay Race Quickfire Challenge, which set the tone for techniques behind the dishes made in the Top Chef kitchen. It some very stiff competition. This was a not-so-subtle reminder: provides a road map, a distillation of tips, tricks, and insider it doesn’t matter who you’ve worked for, what your diploma knowledge that will make you a better and smarter cook. It’s the says, or how vast your tattoo gallery—if you don’t have your ultimate Top Chef bible. In these pages, Jamie walks us through core skills up to snuff, you’re not going to make it here. her process for perfectly searing scallops; Fabio gives us step- Each season has upped the ante, from the creativity of the chal- by-step tips for turning out fabulous fresh pasta; and Kevin lenges to the caliber of the chef’testants. Selling tacos from a shares his passion for pork. street cart has given way to cooking over fire pits in the middle Top Chef is a reality TV show, a cooking competition that entertains of the desert, surrounded by rattlesnakes and hungry ranchers. us and keeps us glued to the edge of our seats. Who will create a We’ve watched chefs wrangle with octopuses, alligators, snails, culinary masterpiece and win over the judges? Who will have and cacti. They’ve catered weddings, opened restaurants, and a meltdown and end up in tears before the hour is through? made Thanksgiving dinner for the Foo Fighters. They’ve had to serve fish to Eric Ripert, gumbo to Emeril, and sauce béarnaise In between the drama and the tension, we are watching some- to Joël Robuchon. thing very exciting taking place: seasoned professionals and tal- Even on Top Chef Masters, where many of the chefs competing ented rookies performing at the top of their game. Top Chef has are accustomed to a small army of assistants, sous-chefs, and given us the opportunity to go deep into the kitchen and watch line cooks, the skills learned over a lifetime came through loud how chefs really work. Okay, maybe most chefs don’t create and clear. Even though at the top of their game, when asked to their menu by rolling dice or prepare fine food over a faulty hot do mundane tasks such as shucking oysters, dressing chickens, plate in their living room, but real chefs have to think on their or whipping egg whites, chefs like Anita Lo, Art Smith, and feet. No matter the circumstances or behind-the-scenes disas- Hubert Keller did not demur; that’s because the same tech- ters, diners expect them to turn out extraordinary food, using all niques learned early on come into play every single day in a their technical skill, creativity, and culinary know-how. professional kitchen. Whether asked to serve appetizers to one Every season, a group of fresh new chef’testants arrives at the hundred hungry guests with no help or coax real flavor out of Top Chef kitchen, whites ironed, knives sharpened, ready to do vegan ingredients, chefs such as Michael Chiarello and Rick battle. Season 6 in Las Vegas began with the famed Mise-en- Moonen rose to the challenge over and over again. 8 Top Chef has become a showcase for creative and innovative cooks, from the impresarios of Asian, Mexican, Italian, and French cuisine featured on Top Chef Masters to the innovative chef’testants who use chemicals and avant-garde techniques to take their dishes to a whole new level. Even the words “Top Chef” can now be used as an adjective to describe the sexing up of home cooking: e.g., “Honey, I went all Top Chef on the roast tonight and made a sunchoke gastrique to go with it.” The show has made dinner parties into a competitive sport, inspiring us to try unusual new ingredients, and encouraging us to take more chances and have more fun in the kitchen. In essence, it has inspired us to think more like Top Chefs and to cook outside the box. 9

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